There has been a threefold increase in the employment of casual academics in Australian universities within the last 20 years, to the extent that most teaching and marking is now undertaken by casual academics, also known as sessional staff. Yet, casualised teaching and assessment has been considered a risk to student engagement and success, and…

The Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) initiative aims to improve early childhood education worldwide through measurement of children's development and learning and the quality of learning environments. Led by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, MELQO comprises an…

Alarmed by the increasing frequency of press reports on corrupt practices in the higher education sector, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the International Quality Group of the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA/CIQG) joined forces to convene an expert meeting in Washington, DC, on 30/31…

Students disengage from and leave high school without a diploma for many different reasons: academic struggles, personal and/or familial obligations, unsupportive school environments and imperceptible relevance of school to their lives and futures. The common thread that connects so many young people who leave before graduating is that the…

The system of teacher education management, namely, forms and principles of teacher education management according to the normative base (Education Reform Act (1988); Education Act (1992; 1993; 1996; 1997; 2002); School Standards and Framework Act (1998); Higher Education Act (2004), etc.), monitoring and participation of the public in its…

Validation of prior learning (VPL), also referred to as recognition, validation and accreditation of prior learning (RVA), is becoming an increasingly important political issue at both European and international levels. In 2012, the European Council, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation…

A complication of teacher education policy in Japan is rooted in a gap between an image of teachers, which is held by society as a whole, and includes various character traits and the reality of Japanese university education. On the other hand, the expansion of an "open system" and lack of nationwide standard are making individual…

Accreditation serves as both a quality assurance and accountability mechanism for our learning institutions. It is a voluntary process of self-regulation and non-governmental peer review supported, in general, by providers of tertiary education and examines the philosophy, goals, programs, facilities, resources, and financial viability of the…

Europe's Bologna Process has been identified as a pioneering approach in regional cooperation with respect to the area of higher education. To address the challenges of African higher education, policymakers are recommending regional cooperation that uses the Bologna Process as a model. Based on these recommendations, the African Union Commission…

While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available…

This paper draws on two research activities to discuss the role of research at the Centre for Language Learning (CLL) at The University of the West Indies St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago. Established in 1997, the CLL introduced languages for all into this Caribbean higher education (HE) context. The CLL also introduced an expanded…

Studio-based degrees in fine arts and design are not often written about in higher education literature. Ten years ago, urban theorist Richard Florida coined the term the "creative class" as individuals who "do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries -- from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, highend…

The quest for lifelong learning and determination to acquire academic qualifications worldwide has opened up universities and polytechnics to cater for the growing number of applicants every year. In this wise, emphasis is placed on widening access to prospective learners of all categories. But should we do this at the expense of quality if we are…

This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. It discusses how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of national higher education systems in these countries, and explores…

The IEA's International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) investigates the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries in the second decade of the 21st century. ICCS 2016 is the second cycle of a study initiated in 2009. This technical report follows the publication of several…